Establishment of a sustainable newborn TSH-screening program in the People's Democratic Republic of Laos

Background: Neonatal screening programs have been established and are in use in most countries worldwide. Laos belongs to the few countries which still have not established any kind of newborn screening.

Methods: Basis for the current screening was an initial pilot project between 2008 and 2010. Then 11.362 samples of newborn infants were screened, samples were weekly air-shipped to a German screening laboratory. During the current project TSH-measurements take place at the laboratory of the largest delivery hospital in Laos, the Mother & Newborn Hospital in Vientiane.

Results: Teaching regarding taking samples and doing measurements started in January 2019, until end of July 2020 altogether 3214 samples were measured. None of the samples was above the predefined cutoff of 20μU/l.

Conclusions: Newborn screening for congenital hypothyroidism with measurements of samples within Laos is feasible. Plausibility control is achieved by regular checks of screening results sent by email to Germany. The most challenging task is to cover all newborns born at participating hospitals and finally to expand the screening beyond the capital to other areas in the country.